Steam iron can be divided into two types: a board-type and a standing-type. The board-type iron is mainly used for ironing clothes, and its structure mainly includes a cold water storage portion, a vaporizer and an ironing plate, such that the cold water coming from the cold water storage portion is heated and vaporized by a vaporizer to produce steam, and the steam is discharged from a plurality of steam holes of the ironing plate. The structure of the standing-type steam iron is substantially the same as that of the board-type steam iron, but the major difference resides on that the standing-type steam iron includes a handheld ironing portion with steam holes, such that the discharged high-temperature steam can be used for ironing clothes, as well as cleaning clothes and removing smells.
The aforementioned two steam irons require processes of heating and vaporizing cold water into water vapors, and then using the steam for ironing or cleaning clothes, and thus the vaporization effect directly affects the performance of the steam irons. Water in a liquid state will be vaporized when the water is heated to a vaporization temperature, but the water is coexisted in both liquid and gaseous states, which is called “wet steam”, and the wet steam is at situated at an unstable state. Particularly, if the temperature drops during the process of transmitting the steam, the steam will be condensed into water at a liquid state to make the clothes wet. If the temperature continues rising and exceeds the vaporization temperature, the water at a liquid state is vaporized into steam, which is called “dry steam”, and the dry steam will not wet the clothes easily due to a drop of temperature.
To use dry steam for cleaning or ironing clothes by a steam iron, a steam washer and vaporizer structure as disclosed in R.O.C. Utility Model Patent No. M250728 is provided for giving a better vaporization effect. The structure comprises a base, an upper casing and a water input device, wherein the water input device provides water at a liquid state to be entered from the vaporizer, and the base installs a plurality of isolating pillars and a U-shape water passage to define a closed space after the upper casing is combined with the base, and an isolating pillar increases the contact area with the liquid water, and the U-shape water passage increases the time of heating the liquid water, such that the water at a liquid state can be heated sufficiently to form dry steam. In another conventional structure for increasing and storing the temperature for the steam in a steam chamber of a steam iron as disclosed in R.O.C. Utility Model Patent Publication No. 319256, an appropriate quantity of erected fins are installed in the steam chamber to achieve the effects of increasing the temperature of the steam and storing the steam, but the vaporizers of the foregoing two steam irons or devices still cause a temperature drop of steam while transmitting steam, so that the dry steam will be condensed into the wet steam.
At present, steam is used for ironing and cleaning clothes, and it is necessary to use a board-type steam iron or a standing-type steam iron, since the board-type steam iron can iron clothes better, but the quantity of steam is scattered and all components are concentrated at the single iron, and thus it cannot be applied to the hanging clothes due to its weight. On the other hand, the standing-type steam iron discharges steam at a spot and thus it cannot be applied for ironing different kinds of clothes, and thus causing inconvenience to users.